Carol Dweck Revisits the 'Growth Mindset' | Hacker News Reader

Carol Dweck Revisits the 'Growth Mindset'

edweek.org

45 pointstokenadult8 comments

That infographic at the end reeks of bullshit. I'm not completely certain, but I think it's similar to how comparisons of whatever new project methodology to the "waterfall model" reek.

I thought the optimal state for learning was supposed to be "flow", where things are interesting and a bit challenging but not so hard that you're banging your head against the wall?

I am not a people person. This doesn't mean I can't interact with people, or get better at interacting with people, but it does mean that it takes significantly more effort vs things I'm naturally better at / more interested in. This also doesn't mean I'm not good at interacting with people.

The article makes it sound like she completely skipped publishing in a journal, and went straight to her popular-audience book. This can't be accurate, this series of posts[1] starts by arguing that her paper doesn't show what it claims to show.

[1] http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/05/07/growth-mindset-4-growth...

If anyone is interested, she's speaking tonight (10/4) in Palo Alto at the Oshman Jewish Community Center.

http://patch.com/california/paloalto/carol-dweck-speak-palo-...

Interesting points, in particular one about "false growth mindsets": A person has a fixed mindset about their capability to have a growth mindset, ie. they feel inadequate for having a fixed mindset, and know that having a growth mindset is good, and are worried about their own ability to have a growth mindset, and so say they have a growth mindset to avoid feeling like they aren't worthy (which is a sign of having a fixed mindset in an area).

Worst is the whole country's cultures who really believe that each person can only be great at one single thing. Being great at multiple things? Impossible, right?

I don't I think I know a single person that thinks a person can only be great at a single thing. Or that everyone is even great at anything.

I don't who these people are, but they're certainly not in Dweck's article.

It'd be helpful for ~nxb to be specific about which country cultures have this problem. But of all the people you know who don't think this way, how many are representative examples of a (non-US) national culture? (And if you know them well enough to judge this, are they perhaps outliers who left another culture?)

The US – and perhaps especially (your home) Texas or more generally the US west – is relatively open to the idea of excellence coming from anyone and in arbitrary combinations, compared to many other more fatalistic/hierarchical/caste-oriented cultures.

It's a region-level culture I'm talking about. In this case, I was thinking of Eastern Europe culture.

You're in for a MASSIVE culture shock, if you ever get employed there. For this, and many other reasons. The cultural expectations in business are often the far opposite of that of the US.

Don't forget that individuals and group culture are two distinct things, but both are very real things. Let's be clear about which one of those we're talking about.

I'm a high school teacher in a public school in Austin, TX. I plan to teach at that school until I retire and write and sell books along the way.

If I ever find myself employed in Eastern Europe then something dramatic will have happened.

The difference in culture is interesting, though, since I don't have to live/work there!

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